Cloud accounting adoption rising among UK accountants

In September 2013 we commissioned market research organisation, OnePoll, to survey 250 UK accounting firms about cloud adoption and found that 28% were already using cloud based software and a further 27% hadn’t yet made the move but intended to so. We also got a bunch of other data about what was driving adoption, attitudes to security, client demand, etc.

Six months later, to coincide with our presence at the Accountex exhibition in London earlier this month, we re-ran the same survey (same questions, same research company, same poll size) to get an up-to-date sample.

This time around we found that the ‘already using cloud’ measure had grown from 28% to 34%, and the ‘almost there’ constituency had lifted from 27% to 31% – an overall swing in positivity from 55% to 65% in favour of the cloud in a little over six months.

So, we set out some of the key comparative findings in this info-graphic, all of which are pretty encouraging.

Same coin, different sides…

Now, ordinarily we wouldn’t directly reference the press endeavours of a competitor, but it turns out serendipitously that our friends at Sage appear to have had exactly the same idea to publish their own cloud adoption survey results on the same day as ours, also at Accountex.

Their overall findings were broadly in line with ours as you would expect, but what stood out for me is how Xero and Sage’s interpretations of the same results sit in direct opposition to each other.

See if you can guess which press coverage relates to Sage’s interpretation of the results and which is ours…

Anyway, we’ll re-run the same survey again in another six months and we’ll report back on whether the needle has moved again for cloud accounting.

Be interesting to see if a change in attitude/perception from Sage once the incumbent Chief Exec stands down but it may not be to late for them. Existing Sage users not using the cloud would probably just jump straight into the Sage cloud when they have one! They see it as a no win no lose situation.

Likewise with Iris/KashFlow now trying to convince Xero partners to use their offering but why would you? They are to late to the party for early adopters but not the existing customer base and reach they already have using desktop. When they turn on the tap they have a ready made pool of customers.

That being said the Xero offering is much more compelling so I’m happy for them to have their cake, eat it and take down the old school accountants with them. More cake for me yum!!